My relationship with technology

   

The Impact on My Life

     The presence of technology in my life has been very beneficial in many ways. I see technology being used in my life every day. Whether that be throguh school or recreaction. There are both pros and cons to this massive presence in my life. 

Pros   

     The convenience that technology supplies are the most important argument for why technology is used so often today. With technology, communication is the easiest it has ever been. We can communicate across the world instantly, buy and shop from around the world as well, and stay up to date on current events at a speed that wasn’t seen one hundred years ago.

Cons

    With the many pros, there also has to be a negative side. The most important negatives are threats to our safety caused by security risks such as theft. We also see a negative impact on social development for some people.

My relationship

    I am very active on the internet, but I am not very involved with social media.  I do not post everything that goes on in my life. My digital footprint is pretty moderate but I still see that as something I need to keep an eye on. 

Final Post videos

    I think both of the videos bring up very valid points of view on our relationship with technology. There is certainly a balance between good and bad when it comes to technology. This topic is a grey area that cannot be so easily defined.

    As people, we require a lot of interpersonal communication. We seek this out on the internet in many situations. This can be a tricky spot, because we are able to communicate with other but run the risk of things like cyberbullying, and other things that damage mental health. We need to be building relationships with people face to face as well. Online friends are not bad but it is not healthy to have your social life exclusively online.

    To find that balance you can try seeking friends in your area online and then transition that relationship to an in-person friendships. You can also set boundaries for yourself and not allow yourself to become overly involved online. The key to everything with technology is moderation and discipline. If you can keep those in mind you have the tools to stay healthy.

Class issues

    We discussed many different problems during class. Many of which will keep developing. I don't think there will be a fall in Chinese social credit. This system is still being actively used and is one of the Chinese government's most effective tools to control their citizens. 

    The topic of privacy and safety should be alarming to many people. For the most part, a lot of people do not hold themselves accountable for their security online. To be safe the user needs to take responsibility and their own precautions. 

    Online censorship is something that cannot be controlled for the most part but should be kept in mind. If we were to forget that the companies in charge did not have their own agendas we would fall into the trap of believing biased narratives. There are many places where free speech is being restricted heavily. These places are either going to make their governments cave or they will be restrained by the government and regulated even further. 

    The topic of artificial intelligence is quite interesting. It is a scary thought for some people. AI needs to be developed there are so many positive potential uses for this tool. The only real problem happens when we go too far and let AI impact our lives too make and make us as people useless. There is certainly a difference between AI being useful and being a replacement. 

Final Blog Post

     The presence of technology in our society today has had many unforeseen effects. While technology was intended to be a safe place there have been many dangers that have been encountered especially in recent years. There are many groups trying to counteract the dangers we as consumers face when online. The fact of the matter is that the internet is somethng that we are required to use and cannot avoid. Therefore it is our own responsibility to ensure our safety and keep an eye out for the threats that we know are out there.

    This link  is a great resource that lists out various different threats to our online safety. There are many different ways that theft can be done through technology. Methods such as phishing and malware can be used to steal information from users. There are many variations to the tools used to steal information from onlne users.

    These are all different forms of a computer virus called malware. With these different variations you get different situations. Like the image says ransomware blackmails you and almost hold your information ransom. You have to pay to get it back and if you dont you may never get your data back or it may be used in worse ways. Spyware simply steals data for someone elses purposes. 

    Despite many times thinking that a threat online is a stranger there are many times when the threat is a company we give our info to. 

    Despite the massive risk caused by high internet traffic, the internet has clearly shown so many benefits. With communications being a vital part of human life we canot ignore the fact that because of technology we are able to learn and communicate in ways we never thought possible. Along with personal communications, businesses and governments are able to dispense informations with lightning speed. 

    This article has some great explanations of how our data is used.

    The information that compaines collect helps a site or company cater to the needs of their users. It is quite interesting how this is such a double edge sword. The fact that so many companies are privy to our private information means that they are both able to help us specifically, whle also posing the threat of spying and stealing from us. When these companies such as twitter, instagram, google, and other incredibly popular websites and social media platforms have so much access to our information it is important to take our security seriously. It can be a great blessing to be involved with the internet, but if security is disregarded then we can find ourselves being victims of alot of different threats.

    From these examples of both threats and conveniences we can see that there are defenitley alot of benefits as long as we take security seriously. When we put ourselves at risk of things like cyberbulllying, or other unintended consiquences, we need to understand that the internet is such a broad spectrum of people and programs that there is always a threat that we havent thought about. We have to stay vigilant and involved in our own safety and security. We cannot just rely on a company to protect us while we dont pay attention to the situations we put ourselves into. If we can do that then we can stay safe while preventing many new possible threats.